Procrastinators Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from chronic procrastination.

Sunday, 18 December 2011

Sunday, 18 December 2011

We will become mature, responsible individuals with a great capacity for joy, fulfillment, and wonder.

Though we may never be perfect, continued spiritual progress will reveal to us our enormous potential.

(from the Al-Anon Promises)


Note: I was traveling

Note: I was traveling yesterday and couldn't post here, but I wrote this offline. I want to put it here just to keep up the habit of posting every day. 

Mind, Body, Spirit
- Meditate for 20 minutes
- PAI, PA before after, MMB
- Stretch, 75 pushups, 10 pistols, 0 pullups
- 1 pitcher of protein shake, vitamins, pill
- Brush AM, PM

Reliable/In touch/Communicative
Respond to all e-mails within 12 hours

Read:
WSJ

Tasks:
Get new classes
Add to R's matrix
Talk to N re: presents
Research advisors
Laundry
20 days transactions
Guest spreadsheet
Resolicit guests
Buy present for NS
Get med scripts

Streaks:
Morning routine - 0 (0)
Meditate – 9 (9)
PAI – 23 (23), MMB – 14 (14), PA - 18 (18) after 0 (1)
Stretch - 18 (18), Pull-ups - 0 (4), pushups - 11 (11), pistols 11 (11)
Shake - 8 (8), vitamins - 17 (17), pills 0 (12)
Brush AM/PM - 7 (9)
Read: WSJ 0 (0)
Respond to all in 12 hours: 0 (0)

Back at it

Didn't get nearly everything done I wanted to yesterday, but did complete some key items, and felt pretty good. Today I have just arrived. I didn't come in early, but took care of several things at my apartment that have needed doing for quite a while. I only plan to work a few hours, then leave, and be content with that. That will give me a little time at home for myself to get ready to start the week, I hope on a positive note.

Couple of thoughts on some things I have noticed. I do two time-related things that suddenly struck me as odd. In fact, these may sound completely silly, but I just realized that I do them subconsciously, and that they are reinforcing negative behaviors. First, if I say I am going to do something for 30 minutes and set a start time, say 4 PM, and look up from whatever I am doing and realize it is 4:02, I set a different time to start, like 4;10 or 4:15, and continue whatever I was doing. In this scenario, chances are I was procrastinating with a reluctant goal to get to work at a particular time.  I often do this more than once, and it eats away at my available work time. But by 'rewarding' myself with a few extra minutes of procrastination because I missed a weak deadline, I am only reinforcing the procrastination AND the inability to meet deadlines. If it's 4:02, I should start at 4:02. The timer won't care if a 30 minute block ends at 4;32.

Second, if set a goal for the overall work period and fail to start on time, I just shift the whole period later. So today as I was having a leisurely lunch around 2 PM. I thought, okay, I will get to work and started at 3:30, and end at 7:30. That's a solid 4 hours. That seemed like a reasonable 'final' plan. Well, now it's 4:40, and I haven't started. My impulse is to now stay until 8:40, assuming I start now. This is nonsense. I am theoretically 'punishing' myself for failing to start on time but at the same time I am reinforcing my inability to *end* work on time so I can have some semblance of a life. I just allow myself to leave later and later. This is not good. 

So, I am resolved to get off this merry go round that contributes to my problems of a. procrastination, and b. spending my life at my workplace, with no semblance of boundaries. 

Goal 1: Start as soon as I post this. Up to 30 minutes per case, starting with the most important.

Goal 2: Work until 7:30 PM, then go home, as planned. Didn't put in 4 hours? Tough.

It's 4:48 PM. Back to report.

Argh. Took a couple minutes to edit my post. Did I mention my OCD? Okay, it's 4:53 and the 30 minute timer is starting *now*.     

 

clement ci

BAD day yesterday.
GREAT bible study at church this morning. For those interested, i'll share, because it was so meaningful to me

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." ["Abba" is the Aramaic word for "Daddy" ie a very intimate term.] So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir. Galations 4:4-7

Here's the take-away that Andy Stanley extracted from that verse:

We do wrong things, and God forgives us. That whay Jesus was born. But that is only the start. Once that debt is paid, it clears the way for us to enter a close, intimate, loving relationship with god--to become Daddy's little boy and girl. At that point, what we do and do not do are a far second to how our God, our Daddy, loves us unconditionally.

Andy talked about how parents feel about their adopted children. How they go out of their way to pursue and seek that child, and how they love them forever. And that is how god feels about us.

As a chronic procrastinator, who SO OFTEN fails in the are of what i should and should not do, it gives me so much HOPE that there is another way to view myself.

my bad day yesterday was all fueled at what i have not gotten done. Including Christmas shopping. So this was exactly what i needed to hear to heal me.

Andy put it this way:

You dont have to look at yourself thru the lense of what you have or haven't done. You can look at youself as an adopted child.

i'm going to try to remember that today, all this season, and all next year, and hopefully all my life.

the touch of the master's hand: http://procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/1898#comment-27748

fall down seven times, get up eight - japanese proverb

bookmarks

12step PA mtg: "meeting chatbox" Sunday 2:30PM NewYorkTime

These are traditional 12step meetings, held right here on this website,
in the "meeting chatbox".

All are welcome.

*** Note: Only those registered members who are inside the PA live chatbox can read the meeting. Then ... All text scroll is erased after the meeting, so that nobody can read the meeting after it's completed. This helps preserve our anonymity.

For help entering/finding the meeting room, see this link:
http://procrastinators-anonymous.org/node/2473

Time:
Year-Round Sundays 7:30 PM GMT/UTC Standard Time

(Sundays 2:30 PM New York Standard Time)

Go to following link to see when that is in your timezone
for TODAY's meeting

http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=12&day=18&year=2011&hour=19&min=30&sec=0&p1=0

My Day Today

I want to thank my Higher Power for this program, this website, the telephone and online meetings, and my life.

I want to thank movingalong for starting this trend.

Things I will do today

1. Cook and eat brunch

2. Take shower

3. Prayer and meditation morning and evening

4. Clear chair

5. Read the Big Book

6. Finish my Third Step in DA

7. Call my DA sponsor

8. Go to the 11 a.m. telephone NA meeting

9. Go to the 1 p.m. telephone CLA meeting

10. Go to the 2:30 p.m. online PA meeting

11. Clear table near the couch

12. Finish my Third Step in NA

13. Write a couple of questions in my NA Fourth Step

15. Go to the 7 p.m. online EA meeting

16. Go to the 8 p.m. telephone CLA meeting

17. Go to the 9:30 p.m. telephone CLA meeting

Thanks for letting me share